Islam
Reader comment on item: Distinguishing between Islam and Islamism

Submitted by Nick Nicolle (Japan), May 11, 2006 at 22:04

Daniel Pipes writes: ... Islam, a religion which today has close to a billion adherents. Their loyalty to Islam is quite amazing: Muslims almost never leave their faith in favor of another one.

Their loyalty to Islam is NOT amazing. It is simply a matter of survival. Any Muslim who dares to renounce his affiliation to Islam immediately receives a death sentence. Thus, there are few apostates, other than those with a suicidal bent.

We in the West tend to think of Islam as just another religion, like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism, advocating a separation of Church and State. Nothing could be further from the truth. Islam permeates the whole social structure of every Islamic country, some a little more so than others. It invades every facet of government, and saturates the lives of every individual. The clerics run these countries, whether from a political aspect or economic. Family structures, too, are governed by Islam. It has a pervading influence that never goes away.

Mohammed was simply an enterprising individual who took advantage of the superstitions of his time, as did many in earlier times, which brought about Christianity and Judaism. He was an epileptic (hence his strange behavior), an illiterate, a philanderer (11 wives), a bandit, who ordered at least 86 raids on various tribes and villages, taking part in 26 himself, in which many innocents were slaughtered.

Islam, like many religions, is simply based on myths, legends and superstitions borrowed from previous cultures and other religions. The Crusades of the 12th century are still remembered.

Despite the praise of the Koran and the Haddiths (traditions) readily handed out by ignorant non-believers wishing to appease Muslims, hate is the theme that is constantly preached by the imams from their pulpits. Not only are they permitted to preach their messages of hate, they have been allowed to expand where there are now 1,200 mosques in the UK and 1,600 in the US, reaching out to many unemployed young Muslim men ripe for recruitment to carry out the wishes of the imams and the mullahs.

Isn't it strange that both the Bible and the Koran were written many, many years after the central figures -- Jesus and Mohammed -- were long dead, so no one remained who could refute their preposterous claims?

Considering the number of innocents killed in the name of religion, both Christianity and Islam -- and others -- have a lot to answer for.

Nick

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